Thirteen #2
“I thought about just going back to the room you guys let me sleep in last night, but I felt a throbbing in my stomach, the same way I’d get when Winslow would give me your scents so I’d perfume.
I thought I was getting a heat spike, and I didn’t want to be around him when that happened.
He already thought I was pathetic so I just started stumbling as far away from him as I could.
I heard your music and snuck in. Sorry. You weren’t meant to find me. ”
“I’m glad I did.”
“You don’t mean that. You guys should just take me to The Omega Center and let me get matched with a pack that actually wants an omega. I don’t want to live like this. I can’t live like this. It’s been all of one day and I’m ready to quit.”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
Fable looks up at me, shocked. “So you guys don’t want me but no one else can have me either? How does that make sense to you? I’m invading your home, interrupting your routines, living off your generosity. I’m better off elsewhere. You guys are going to resent me in no time, if you don’t already.”
The thought of another alpha touching my scent match has me seeing red, but I already know she’s sensitive to violence, so I have to tone down the emotions threatening to spill over. “You still want that kiss?”
She shakes her head and pulls away, standing before I can stop her. “You’re mocking me.”
She swings one leg over my torso to leave the room, and it just so happens to be the perfect location for my hands to grab onto her ankles. One in each hand, I wrap my fingers around them, teasing the soft skin I find. “Why the hell would I do that?”
“What are you doing?”
She looks so haughty, hands on her hips as she stares down at me, but it’s a glorious fucking view from where I am. I can see every dip and curve encased in the soft fabric she’s swathed in. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to put the moves on my omega.”
“Very funny. Can you please let me go so I don’t trip?”
I give her legs the slightest yank, making her fall on top of me, landing on her knees. I catch her weight before she makes enough impact to hurt, but now I’m exactly where I want to be; caged in by her. Long, dark tresses falling around me and an inscrutable emotion on her face.
“Oops. Made you trip.”
Her eyes flick to my lips, and it’s all the opening I need.
I close the distance, cupping the back of her head so I can taste her sweet mouth.
This whole situation has been incredibly confusing, going from thinking we were a single pack, a widowed pack maybe, to being in charge of somebody else’s wellbeing that we didn’t know existed, to finding out she’s not only a damn omega, but that she’s our damn scent match. Our real scent match,
That we nearly starved to death out of boredom.
“I need you to be okay,” I whisper against her mouth, loathe to pull away from her, “because if you’re not…
if you can’t heal, then there’s no point in doing anything anymore, Fable.
I don’t know if anybody has apologized yet but let me be the first if they haven’t.
I’m so fucking sorry we disrespected your home when we were there, and I’m so sorry that we depleted your stockpile of food and blood.
We are not by any means heartless alphas, and I know you must assume we are because of what you saw and because of how your sister treated you, but we can be good men, I swear it. ”
“At what cost?”
Her eyes are dilating, her breathing getting heavier, and her scent is getting stronger.
I place a hand on her belly, under her shirt.
She flinches. “At the cost of having a bunch of overbearing alphas that dote on you and spend too much money on you and make you too many delicious things to eat so you’re never hungry again. You’re in pain right now, aren’t you?”
“It’s not so bad right now. I’ve had much worse.”
“And that’s not at all what I asked. How did you normally deal with heats at your home? Did you have any way to ease yourself through them? I’m assuming no alphas were discreetly brought in to service you.”
She looks away from me, eyes focusing on the floor next to my head. “If Winslow could have done less for me, then she would have. I was merely a means of the lifestyle she wanted.”
“I don’t like that you’re hurting.”
“It’s not like there’s much to be done about it,” she says instinctively.
I stare at her with a smirk on my face, waiting for her attention to fall back onto me. Whatever she sees on my face has her backpedaling, sucking in a gasp. “I wasn’t— that’s—I’m not asking for your knot.”
“Well why not?”
She makes a bunch of bumbling noises before regaining control of herself. Even though her outside looks more composed, I can tell by the wildness behind her eyes she’s far from it.
Fable sits back on me so her hands are free, using them to comb through her hair and relieve some tension on her scalp. In doing so, she accidentally shifts her weight backwards and ends up getting herself poked.
“I’ve never…” she trails off, hesitantly.